General Information

Name: Clara Orban

Illinois Connection

Orban lives in Chicago and teaches at DePaul University.

Biographical and Professional Information

A recipient of the DePaul Excellence in Teaching Award, Clara Orban, is a professor of French and Italian, and chair of the department of modern languages at DePaul University. She is the author of numerous books and articles. Along with her books on wine, Orban has written an award-winning novel, Terra Firma. A certified sommelier who has passed the first two levels of sommelier exams through the Court of Master Sommeliers in London, Orban has been teaching Geography 350: The World of Wine at DePaul since 2002 and has given lectures and presentations around the world.

Selected Titles At Your Library

"For more than a century, Illinois has been home to a blossoming wine culture, yet winemaking in the state has not received the attention it deserves. Now, Clara Orban has created the ultimate companion to Illinois wines and wineries. This illustrated volume is a comprehensive yet user-friendly guide for both experienced wine lovers and amateur oenophiles. Orban, a certified sommelier, begins with the history of Illinois wine production and wineries. She then enlightens readers on such wine basics as the most common grapes grown in Illinois, optimal food and wine pairings, the tenets of wine tasting, and provides an overview of the world of labels, bottles, and corks. The fascinating science of wine also is discussed, including the particulars of Illinois soil and climate and their effect on the industry. Orban then provides a guide to all the wineries listed by the Illinois Grape Growers and Vintners' Association. For each winery, she offers a succinct history, information regarding the variety of grapes used, hours of operation, location, and contact information. In addition to providing readers with a background of the state's industry and snapshots of individual wineries, Illinois Wines and Wineries provides a glossary of key wine terms, including those specific to the state of Illinois, as well as color photos and a map to each location visited in the book. This sophisticated yet practical guidebook is an essential resource for connoisseurs and casual enthusiasts alike who are interested in exploring Illinois's rich winemaking legacy"--

"Body [in] Parts: Bodies and Identity in Sade and Guibert explores the link between Herve Guibert, one of France's most provocative contemporary writers who died of AIDS in 1991, and the Marquis de Sade, the most notorious Enlightenment libertine. In both authors bodies lose their corporeality. They are denied a history through shifting biographies and autobiographies, then lose their physical reality in time. Bodies are objectified and mechanized before being cut up or imprisoned as a way to dehumanize them. Ultimately they become ghosts who haunt the texts."--Jacket.